The MiWa Technologies team has won first place in the 2014 UH Business Plan Competition for its CP-Stethoscope.

The device was developed by Professor Magdy Iskander, director of the College of Engineering's Hawaii Center for Advanced Communications, and electrical engineering graduate students Ruthsenne Perron (PhD candidate), Gui Chao Huang (MS student) and Darcy Bibb (MS student). Contributing to the development of the business plan was Matt Amore, a Shidler College of Business undergraduate student.

The CP-Stethoscope is a unique, non-invasive radio-frequency sensor for continuous monitoring of multiple vital signs, including measurement of changes in lung water content for early detection of heart failure and other cardiopulmonary diseases. The annual business plan competition is an intense semester-long learning opportunity for UH students aspiring to pursue a business venture, providing mentorship, training and resources. Winners walk away with a wealth of business and entrepreneurial experience and substantial cash prizes.

The CP-Stethoscope also earned national recognition. It won Best of Show in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Program, which prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and teaches grantees to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research and offers entrepreneurship training to student participants. The device has been recommended to the Office of Science and Technology Policies (OSTP) as an “Entrepreneur Success Story,” which will be featured in the White House program, StartUp America.

“We are extremely proud that, once again, an engineering team claimed top prize in the UH Business Plan Competition, organized by the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship in the Shidler College of Business," said College of Engineering Dean Peter E. Crouch. “Our innovative faculty are continuously recognizing business opportunities for our students and equipping them with skills to secure funding and providing insight on how to manage commercialization processes.”